Ealdremen Languages
Being a galaxy with several habitable planets, languages across the different races and cultures can vary greatly. Listed here are the most common languages in the galaxy and the phonetic aesthetic they adhere to in addition to any notes about the language, all organized by what planet they originate from. Non-Regional Languages Standard Kylian The common tongue of the galaxy, frequently referred to as just "Standard". It bears similarities to Nicta-slio grammatically and phonetic similarities to Morish and Alamin, though it will virtually always take on local quirks depending on where in the galaxy it's being spoken. Speaking Standard is practically a requirement for getting by anywhere but the most remote of locations in the galaxy. Player characters begin play knowing Standard Kylian as a baseline ability unless the roleplayer chooses not to. Ancient Precursor The only known language to be spoken by the precursors, Ancient Precursor is found in runic writings on the remains of the planet Mioura. Being extinct, it's mostly only learned by people studying the precursors or those with an academic interest in languages, though it being comparatively rare to know means it is also often the basis for many amateur "secret codes". Leraphian What seems to be a common language among extraplanar creatures, Leraphian is also used in magic, able to substitute for a common tongue in incantations and scribing scrolls. However, it is considered impossibly difficult to learn because it is rooted in imagery and feelings, bearing few easily discernible syntax rules (while also not functioning as a language of magic if these rules are broken) and having difficult to pronounce vocabulary. Beynid Languages Languages from Beyne have been influenced and consolidated a great deal due to the Beynid history of occupation or colonization by foreign powers, especially the Gerualdi Union, which has changed its languages most over the years. To an untrained ear, many Beynid languages might be mistaken for Nicta-slio or its relatives, and despite years of linguistic drift, there are still a good amount of cognates in Beynid languages and their linguistic ancestors. Rolled Rs, few consonant clusters, and appending vowels to sounds that are usually not found alone (such as a word beginning with an S) are common markers of a Beynid accent. They tend to drop ending Gs in their words due to the sound generally being not found in Beynid languages, especially in Eradín and Deos. Another common feature of Beynid accents is placing the emphasis on the penultimate syllable unless the word has an accent mark on another syllable; this in particular is hard for Beynid speakers of other languages to unlearn, and it's one of the primary differences between most Beynid accents and the Gerualdian languages they're derived from. Because of Beyne's emphasis on technology, a Beynid accent is commonly seen as the accent of scientists, engineers, factory workers, or roaming desert-based merchants. : Deos: Similar to Catelan. : Eradín: Similar to Spanish. : Ferro: Similar to Quecha. : Gorrol: Similar to Judaeo-Spanish. Estvoldian Languages Because of the myriad of nations throughout Estvoled and their long history of independent sovereignty from one another, Estvoldians have as many accents as they have cultures. Morish and its linguistic relatives, such as Feynk and Ryusia, command the most prestige, as Morish has long been the primary language of the Veriol Alliance. In popular culture, a character who is supposed to be affluent, polite, and educated will most often have a Morish accent or one similar to it. Morish accents soften words to a great degree, sometimes even to the point where they might be described as the words being "light" on the tongue, and the linguistic quirk of pronouncing Js as Ys has spread to many other languages throughout Ealdremen due to Morish speakers being at the forefront of colonization in ages past. Kyrolid accents stem from languages like Acrui-dren, Rolt, Mikrult, Serlt, and Scheli-dren. Unlike Morish accents, Kyrolid languages have stronger consonants, and this reflects in how they speak other languages, especially in the common "throat" consonants such as hard Ch and G sounds. Speakers of Scheli-dren and Acrui-dren in particular will usually have the same level of syllabic emphasis across a word, which can prove problematic when speaking languages where the emphasis on a given syllable is crucial to communication. "Sea-tongues" are the languages that originated from the larrier and tiaquin races. When speaking other languages, they may come across as speaking more through "the nose" in terms of nasal sounds. Because so much of the sea-tongues have silent syllables or otherwise have misleading pronunciations due to poor standardization of phonetic rules long ago, speakers of languages such as Rodaul, Nlegaul, Wiraul, or Yaux may drop or slur syllables because it simply "sounds" right to do so. Syntax is also not well-standardized in the sea-tongues, particularly in Rodaul, and native speakers of these languages may reorder sentences to emphasize the most important part of the sentence as opposed to following conventional grammatical rules. The mostly single-syllabic Donn and Trok languages place a great emphasis on pitch and tone quality when speaking, and they have been described as almost "singing" other languages if their accent is still obvious. The most common feature of a Donn or Trok accent is that they will add in "nonsense" filler words between words to maintain a sense of conversational rhythm or to "pad" an otherwise short sentence. For obvious reasons, these accents are most greatly associated with musicians. Despite linguistic differences, Kuda accents are often lumped in with Donn and Trok accents as being "the same thing" on account of geographic location. However, Kuda speakers rarely employ filler words as Donn or Trok speakers do, and they are more commonly regarded as elongating their vowels, which are all spoken with a very rounded sound, and being unable to pronounce the F sound, instead pronouncing it as closer to a V. Lephikas accents enjoy a great deal of popularity in fringe pop culture, as their media exports have cult popularity throughout Ealdremen. Dedicated followers of Karikaros culture in particular will often fawn over their favorite actors or media creators, and in some cases, Lephikas speakers living abroad may train to maintain their accent if their accent is part of their appeal. A common feature of the Lephikas accent is sometimes called the "dual-emphasis," where syllables will be emphasized in pairs of two; a two-syllable word will have both syllables emphasized, and a single-syllable word will not be emphasized at all. : Acrui-dren: '''Similar to Dutch. : '''Dishaux: Similar to Picard. : Donn: Similar to Cantonese Chinese. : Feynk: Similar to Slovak. : Kuda: Similar to Korean. : Lephikas: Similar to Greek. : Mikrult: '''Similar to West Frisian. : '''Morish: Similar to Czech. : Nlegaul: Similar to Norman. : Rodaul: Similar to Old French. : Rolt: '''Similar to Afrikaans. : '''Ryusia: Similar to Sorbian. : Scheli-dren: Similar to German. : Serlt: Similar to Old Saxon. : Trok: Similar to Mandarin Chinese. : Wiraul: Similar to Gallo. : Yaux: Similar to French. Gerualdian Languages : Cill: Similar to Powhatan. : Cilanhi: Similar to Extramaduran. : Dolosian: Similar to Galician. : Donega: Similar to Irish-Gaelic. : Eunda: Similar to Algonquin. : Magrul: Similar to Scottish-Gaelic. : Narden: '''Similar to Western Armenian. : '''Narnark-der: Similar to Eastern Armenian. : Nicta-slio: Similar to Italian. : Oki: Similar to a shortened form of Ojibwe. : Poeri: Similar to a vowel-heavy Ladin. : Piperspeech: '''Similar to Navajo. : '''Rillin: Similar to Emilian. : Sriop: Similar to Welsh. : Tasaramar: '''Similar to Ojibwe. : '''Trenook: Similar to a vowel-heavy Emilian. : Zorredrian: Similar to Portuguese. Raljikkan Languages : Aenau: Similar to a more vowel-heavy Syriac. : Alamin: Though Alamin has long been a common tongue for the various Raljikkan peoples, it experienced some influence from Morish and Nicta-slio during the Millennial Calm. It eventually even adopted Morish's writing system, and only very formal documents may still use traditional Alamin to this day. Double consonants -- particularly Ks -- are common in Alamin words, and the main stress almost always falls on the first syllable of the word. Due to how widespread of a language it is, Alamin has quite a few regional variations and dialects. In areas of Beyne where Alamin is spoken, for example, the language has been influenced by more Gerualdian sounds and accents. However, the centralized nature of the Alamo Empire has delayed the development of future Alamin variations somewhat. Similar to Icelandic. : Aurwrakk: Similar to Swedish. : Betascript: Similar to Ge'ez. : Common Habou: Characterized by numerous double vowels (which are pronounced as lengthening the syllable), Common Habou is mostly spoken throughout the southern nations of Raljikka, particularly Sabaria's neighbors. Historically, it was a trade language and was one of the most common languages throughout that world before it was displaced by Alamin as the Raljikkan lingua franca, following the rise of the Alamo Empire. Consonants tend to be softer -- S, N, M, and R are especially common -- and almost never appear in clusters. The majority of their words end in vowels and are almost never single monosyllabic, though rather long words (more than four syllables) are also uncommon unless they were a compound or hyphenated word of some sort. Similar to Arabic. : Didendi: Similar to Old Japanese. : Felkkuun: Similar to Faroese. : Gili: Phonetically rather similar to Zinaji and Didendi, the Gili language is isolated to the Gili Isles for which it is named. It is thought that Gili is the closest to the language that Zinaji, Didendi, and Gili all came from; due to its isolation, it retained numerous aspects of this old language and did not drift as much as the other two, which were in more constant contact with other cultures. Gili utilizes a few consonant clusters, such as Sh-'', and many of its vowels have merged to the same sound. For example, U and O are both pronounced as "oo" in Gili, and E and I are both "ee". Notably, K and G have merged to be the same sound, and most translations of Gili use "G" in spellings, although some older translations may use the two interchangeably seemingly at random. Similar to Okinawan. : '''Hiin:' Similar to Danish. : Iingtus: Similar to Elfdalian. : Listur: Similar to Norwegian. : Niaau: Similar to Hebrew. : Opern: Similar to Kazakh. : Quieets: Similar to Turkish. : Pairn: Similar to Norn. : Shrakkin: Similar to Old Norse. : Smadda: Just like its primary speakers, Smadda is resistant to foreign ideas and words. This is reflected by how Smaddan words are almost never loanwords -- a much shorter but foreign term will never be used, instead replaced by a descriptive Smaddan term that is much longer. It's not "Chronotech" to a Smadda speaker; it's literally "outside-machines-using-magic". Many of their words are two to four syllables, but more recently-invented terms are much longer. Some have called Smadda a rough, growling sort of language due to its use of rough Rs and consonant clusters, particularly Dr-'' and ''Gr-''. Because it has been mostly isolated and spoken only by a comparatively small amount of people, Smadda does not have many -- if any -- notable dialects or variations. Similar to a rougher-sounding Daur. : '''Zinaji:' Most Zinaji words are comprised of syllables that almost always end in a vowel. Exceptions to this are rare and are often loanwords from other languages, which Zinaji generally does not change too much when borrowing. In Zinaji, the letters "R" and "N" are considered to be vowels and are pronounced as separate syllables when they come before a consonant -- for example, the name "Aluvardi" would be pronounced "Ah-loo-vah-rr-dee," but Zinaji would be "Zee-nah-jee". Because Zinaji is not particularly rigid in grammar structure or syntax, it is often easy for people to speak, so long as they get the vocabulary right. However, the trade-off is that can be hard for them to understand as syntax can vary wildly from one sentence to the next, making it hard to follow. Similar to Japanese. Sigzlorian Languages Languages from Sigzlor are altogether similar to one another due to the planet's geography; as most of the planet's landmass is part of the same comparatively small continent, there has been linguistic borrowing and culture sharing for virtually all of Sigzlor's history. Sigzlor-originating Standard accents will often overemphasize H sounds, often pronouncing them with a sound made in the back of the throat, and may struggle with voiced consonants in many cases, such as pronouncing Bs as Ps or Gs as Ks. Sigzlorian languages also tend to be most gender-neutral throughout all of Ealdremen, and Sigzlorian speakers usually struggle with gendered words, especially pronouns, and may mix them up or not view them as particularly important. Sigzlorians still in the process of learning Standard -- or any language with gendered pronouns -- may refer to themselves with pronouns based on what sounds phonetically good in a sentence as opposed to what is semantically correct, often by avoiding repeating the last sound in the subsequent word's first sound. In many cases, most Sigzlorian accents mark someone as an eccentric artist or as an intimidating, hostile person depending on the individual's race or where they currently are. A Dakkin accent tends to mark someone as a hermit or social outsider due to its association with reclusive shape-shifters. : Dakkin: '''A language predominately spoken by shape-shifters, it is closely related to a few Raljikkan languages. It was more similar to Alamin prior to the shape-shifters' departure from Raljikka, but years of lingusitic drift have made it its own language. Similar to Finnish. : '''Eruino: The lingua franca of Sigzlor, Eruino is spoken by virtually everyone in densely populated areas. It's not so common in boondocks or rural areas, but it's quite easy to learn. Similar to Polish. : Fleen: Similar to Old Novgorod. : Hladir: Similar to Belarusian. : Lodov: A language limited to the equatorial nations of the Falkovok continent, Lodov is very similar to Xiroff, albeit much easier to learn. Similar to Russian. : Reelov: Similar to Ukranian. : Xiroff: A language commonly spoken in Valznovie, Xiroff's speakers are most often shape-shifters and morphers. It's characterized by its highly complicated grammar structures, making it hard for outsiders to learn. Similar to Russian. Category:Terms Category:No Spoilers